Adios Emotional Baggage

and pack a monstrous suitcase full of just about everything, only to kick yourself later because it was so heavy and you only used about half of what you brought? Too much baggage is a pain in the ass.

Let’s talk emotional baggage for a minute. Everyone has an emotional suitcase and through the years circumstances and life in general causes people to put negative emotions in their suitcase and carry it along day to day. It’s called emotional baggage for a reason. It is luggage full of painful and negative emotions that people NEED to leave behind, but for one reason or another don’t.

Carrying emotional baggage gets exhausting. The more shit you throw in there and carry the more you might want to crash your car into a tree. It certainly is a nuisance not only to you, but also to those who are close to you. This is a big reason why some relationships end so quickly. One or both partners brings this huge bag of emotional baggage into the relationship and expects everything to be grand. It does not go down like that.

Emotional baggage can come from dysfunctional childhoods, wounds from failed relationships, failures, negativity, mental health disorders, anxiety, bad habits and choices, and so on. The older one gets, the more opportunity to add crap to the suitcase. You could potentially fill that thing up to overflowing if you don’t do emotional damage control.

Emotional damage control is precisely what you need. It is time to open up your emotional luggage and take a peek inside. Find out what you are carrying that you don’t need and that has been weighing you down. You are perhaps carrying plenty of resentments, anger, fear, bitterness, disappointments, etc. and it is vital to your mental health that you work through them and let them go.

You may be able to handle this on your own, but plenty of people go to a therapist to get through tough emotional scars and wounds that can stem back all the way from childhood. There is no shame in seeking professional help. They have the tools and wisdom to help us gain insights and give us permission to just let go. There comes a time to finally say goodbye to emotional baggage and experience freedom and joy.

It took me many years to finally be able to admit that I’d stuffed MANY years of emotional garbage into my suitcase. It actually got to a point in which I couldn’t stuff one more emotion in my luggage. Trust me, I tried. I had to acknowledge that I was struggling with negative emotions stemming from childhood and as an adult. I did finally seek help when I could not take it anymore. It was either that or say screw it all and run as far away as I could- which would not have solved one thing.

I had to finally take responsibility for everything in my life and stop people pleasing and being who I thought I had to be for everyone else. I had to face my wounds head on no matter how fearful I was. It was not easy, but I am so glad I did.

I found out that by letting go of all the crap in the luggage, I could finally begin to experience the positive emotions more fully. The dark cloud that seemed to always be hovering over me began to dissipate and I felt relief and more joy than I’d felt in many years.

Our journeys will eventually take us inward to seek to know self. In finding our authentic selves and discovering passion and purpose, we can find authentic joy and peace. It is well worth the effort and the earth is a much better place for it, because if we can fully love the self, we can add value to humanity, which really is a primary purpose of everyone.